Insane Visit to a Local Micro-Winery in Peru

Totally out of the blue I received an invite for an invent at a local micro-winery in San Juan de Lurigancho, a district outside of Lima Peru. I wasn’t even aware of Bodega y Viñedos Candela, and certainly had never tried any of their wines, but suddenly I was...

Battle of the Budget German Reezies

Faced with a business trip to Texas — shudder — I opted to make the week a bit brighter by stocking up on some German rieslings to test against each other. I intentionally chose three budget reezies, each at $15 or less. These are readily available in the...

The Temperature of Your Wine Shop Matters

Recently I reviewed two vastly different wines that suffered from a similarly horrible problem: they tasted like utter garbage, as if someone had bottled the water used to put out a dumpster fire. The first was a Trapiche Varietales Sauvignon Blanc 2011 from...

First Wine Tasted in 2018 Nails Five Stars

It was slow going last year, with a struggle to find some 5-star winners until mid-year, but 2018 hit the road running. The very first wine tasted nailed a coveted cinco! Meet the Errazuriz Estate Series Carmenère 2013 from Chile, a budget carmy that will absolutely...

An Ode To Cork

I get it. Cork rots. It leaks air. It’s unreliable. It makes no sense from a simple manufacturing standpoint. I mean, I really get it. In my day job, I’m an aerospace quality consultant, having worked with companies such as Lufthansa, Northrup Grumman,...

Let’s Look At The Worst Wines of 2017 (So Far)

Generally, 2017 started off pretty terribly, with not a single wine winning 5 stars until March, when Joh. Jos. Prüm’s 2012 Graacher Hehimmelreich Spätlese earned a cinco, and even that was easy, since I’m a fan of the German reezies. And then it wasn’t...

Hey, Assholes, Stop Putting Wine in Bourbon Barrels

OK, so how many Winepisser readers enjoy a peanut butter and jelly sandwich which has been rubbed in celery salt and truffle oil? Not many I expect. What about a fine filet mignon that has been cooked to perfection and then soaked in the leftover milk from a bowl of...

German Riesling Wins First 2017 Five-Star Review

It’s been a drab year so far, and we are already in March without much great wine to talk about. Your Winepisser has tasted a slew of whites lately (middling sauvignon blancs, a few lackluster pinot grigios, and a ton of crappy chardonnay) as well as a moderate...

The Tao of DAOU’s Pessimist Red Blend 2014

Never having been much on red blends, if years ago you had told me last year’s Winepisser Best Wine award would have gone to a blend (Apothic Red won), I would have scoffed. Now we see another Cally blend hitting the 5-star mark here at Winepisser, with DOAU...